Category Archives: Politics

As I type this the Today program on Radio 4 is covering the upcoming Ping Pong match between the Chinese president and Japanese Prime Minister, covering diplomatic niceties and pro-Tibet protests. Here are my experiences of almost meeting President Hu and protests in Japan.(more…)

The ISO approved ISO 29500, otherwise known as Microsoft OOXML the other day. This is of course a travesty as the ISO fast track process has been soundly hijacked and the format is not ready for the big time as it is currently unimplementable by anyone other than Microsoft and maybe Novel.

Do read on to find out not only what’s been going on, if you haven’t been following too carefully, but also why this is important to all our digital futures. And if you feel it is important, feel free to use it to construct your own letter to you appropriate representative.

The only comment I will pass on Cardinal O’Brien’s remark “Two Dunblane massacres a day in our country going on and on. And when’s it going to stop?” is that using the Dunblane massacre as a macabre measuring rod is deeply crass and upsetting. He should be ashamed and if he thinks invoking those memories will help his cause he is sorely mistaken.

I don’t think abortion is particularly pleasant and I know it can be traumatic for women who have to use it, but the key to reducing it is surely sexual education and the promotion of pre-conception contraceptives. Outlawing it would only drive it back into back alleys where people will be mutilated and killed.

Of course contraceptives are similarly frowned upon by the Catholic church and condom use is actively discouraged in Africa where HIV infection could reach 10% of the population by 2025 if the current trends are not curbed.

So on the one hand excommunication if the punishment for aborting a cluster of cells while becoming Pope is the reward for pedaling an outdated doctrine that abstinence is the cure for HIV and AIDS, a policy that will help to contribute to the deaths of 80 million people by 2025. The impact on the economies in Africa of the disease is such that all of the West’s (admittedly inadequate) attempts to alleviate poverty are frankly pissing against the wind.

The problem, not just for the Catholic church but for others as well, is that Secularism is ahead of the curve on morality by a long way. From discrimination against women or homosexuals to how we should react to horrific diseases.

They have lost their way on the latter. Christ illustrated this commandment throughout his life by associating himself with outcasts, lepers, prostitutes and even tax men. He also illustrated it with the story of the Good Samaritan.

Who then is a good neighbour to the HIV stricken in Africa or women in the desperate situation of having an unwanted pregnancy? The Priests who raise their nose and pass by on the other side or the secular politicians who act to help them?

It is really sad that the churches have become an impediment to healing the world’s woes and not one of the leaders where they really should be. These sorts of comments from Catholic bishops reinforce the fact that they are way behind the curve on Secularism’s moral fibre and the gap between them and the rest of the world will continue to grow.

This christian is on the side of the politicians and they can take communion with me any day they please.